Working Hard At Doing Nothing

The Pharisees, who loved money … were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts”.
Luke 16:14-5

A telescope is helpful for studying the moon—if you look through the right end. But turn it around and the perspective becomes distorted.

In Luke 16 Jesus challenged the perspective of the Pharisees in their relationship with God. Charles Finney analyzes their wrong-ended perspective on righteous living.

WALK WITH CHARLES FINNEY
“Many professing Christians judge themselves falsely because they judge by a false standard.

“Like the Pharisees, they employ a merely negative standard.

“Suppose someone lets a house burn down and makes no effort to save it or its occupants. They hope not to be judged harshly, since they did not set the house on fire. They only let it alone.

“All they did was do nothing.

“That is all many persons plead as their religious duty. They do nothing to pluck sinners out of the fire, and they seem to think theirs is a very commendable religion. “Such was the religion of the Pharisees. “But was this the religion of Jesus or Paul?”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
Jesus said, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees … you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).

Harsh words. After all, the Pharisees did the right things. They prayed often and long. Fasted. Tithed. Went to the temple.

But as Christ pointed out, they were doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons (see Luke 11:42).

In short, they were looking at God through the wrong end of the telescope.

It’s sad to think where their misguided perspective led them.

But, of course, no one would make that fatal mistake today. Would they?